Ed. note: Here are some personal statments relating to feelings of Jewishness by Humanistic Jews presented on the hj list. This file welcomes more statements and will be updated as more such posts come to the list. Posts included here by: Myra Glasser (posted by Michael Goldhamer) Hershl Hartman Walter Hellman ...................................................................... From goldhamr@teleport.comSat Oct 28 09:46:46 1995 Date: Sat, 30 Sep 1995 12:54:37 -0700 (PDT) From: "M. Michael Goldhamer" To: hj Subject: Greater Portland Rosh Hashana message At our Rosh Hashana service, three people gave short talks about "what these holidays mean to me as a Humanistic Jew." Here is one of them, by Myra Glasser. Return Renewal Rekindling When Jane called and asked if I would participate in this part of the Rosh Hashana service, I agreed for very selfish reasons. I thought that if I had to put my thoughts to paper, I might be able to answer some of the questions about my relationship to Judaism that have been nagging me for years. Three weeks later, I have no answers, no strong statements, no certainties, nothing concrete. What I do have to share are feelings, vague perceptions, and a new level of self acceptance. For me, Rosh Hashana is an annual return to the core of who I am. It is a return to the culture of my youth; to a part of me that is anchored in a history that I cannot and do not want to shed. It is a return to a central part of my person that is often overlooked during the rest of the year. Rosh Hashana is a renewal of a search, that ebbs and flows, to better understand and define the Jewish part of me; it is a renewal of the search for a path or direction that will lead me to a place of peace and comfort in defining the kind of Jew I can and want to be. Rosh Hashana is a time to rekindle the embers of my Jewish self through celebration in community. It is a time to rekindle that special feeling that comes from sharing with a community the hope and goodness and sense of optimism that this Rosh Hashana holiday gives to all of us. By embracing this community, the Rosh Hashana holiday gives me the opportunity to accept myself, and to celebrate in the way I choose. I am happy to choose to be with you this evening to renew and rekindle the spirit of Rosh Hashana in our lives. ......................................................................... From Hershl@aol.comSat Oct 28 09:46:48 1995 Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 13:10:54 -0400 From: Hershl@aol.com To: hj@teleport.com Subject: Re: More on God in Secular and Humanistic Jewishness Mike Prival's points are very well taken. However, they don't quite answer the question: "saying only what you believe is fine, but what makes what you say _Jewish_?" Or, "how would I relate to my Jewish identity if I don't say the prayers?" To which the classical Secular response has been and remains: the Enlightenment separated church and state, or religious practice from peoplehood. Thus, one's belief or non-belief in the supernatural became a matter of personal conscience, not of citizenship in a state or membership in a nation or people. This applies equally to the Jewish people. As a personal matter, one can believe as one wishes. One's Jewish identity comes from one's involvement with the people's history--and the ethical traditions shaped by that history--and its culture: its languages, literatures, foods, music, dance, folk-traditions, humor, creative arts, etc., etc. (Knowledge of its mythologies is also a part of the broad cultural heritage--but _as_ mythologies.) Among the most important aspects of the Jewish historical tradition are the rights of selectivity and of dissent. Jews have always chosen which traditions they would follow (how many _observant_ Jews do you know who fast on Tsom Gedalye?) and how they chose to observe the selected traditions. There have always been within the totality of the Jewish people those who dissented from the "majority" or the "norm." (The prophets were not too popular with the priests, royalty and the nobility...Maimonides hardly followed the established norms of rabbinic Judaism and, though he was revered, Nachmanides turned his attempt at rationalization back almost 180 degrees. And as for the talmud, what is it if not a record of conflicting, often diametrically opposite contentions about traditions and how they should be followed?) Secularist and Humanistic Jews, therefore, have both a form of Jewish identity that is as valid as rabbinic Judaism in any of its very varied forms, and we have the right granted us by Jewish history to select those traditions that seem valid to us, though our practices dissent from someone else's concept of "real" or "true" Jewishness. Hershl Hartman Sholem Community Organization Los Angeles ........................................................................ Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 19:51:01 -0800 (PST) From: Walter Hellman To: hj@teleport.com Subject: Personal view of Humanistic Judaism as religion Hello All, Some of you already read the liberal Judaism mailing list. In reading it I saw very little reflecting the views of Humanistic Judaism as I understand it. There were many highly conservative postings. I felt it would be good, both to clarify my own thinking on the issue and to represent these different views, to do a posting on the lj list. The first piece, "Why I feel I am Jewish," below was on a week or two ago. The second, a continuation and elaboration relating to the question "Is anything sacred in Humanistic Judaism?," will be in the next issue of lj. [ed note: this piece is in the arhive file "sacred.hj] I would be interested to know how others in HJ feel about the views below. Walter Hellman PART I. >From hellman@teleport.comSun Feb 12 21:04:53 1995 Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 21:02:21 -0800 (PST) From: Walter Hellman To: faigin@aero.org Subject: Submission for lib.jud list Hello Daniel, Here is my submission for the lj list and thanks for your tireless work on it. Walter Hellman Subject: Why I feel I am Jewish The great variety of approaches to Judaism evidenced in the postings to this list has caused me to specifically question just what it is which makes me feel Jewish. Some responses to the question are simple; I was raised in a Jewish family, went to Hebrew school, observed the Jewish holidays with my family and was bar mitzvahed. These are indicators that I was raised as a Jew, but not that I should necessarily feel I am one now. We do many things in childhood which, as adults, we no longer continue. After thinking about this, I realized that the main reason for my feeling Jewish, aside from cultural upbringing, stems from the Jewish tradition of values as exemplified in Jewish history and Jewish history itself. For me the importance of the Ten Commandments story is not that God gave these commandments, but that a code of written law was to be followed by all, regardless of social or political stature, in a time when might was right. The writings of the Prophets, such as Isaiah and Micah, are significant to me not because they were "divinely inspired" because they were some of the first trumpetings of the voice of justice in an unjust world. The story of Jesus is critical to who we Jews are. Those who were skeptical of any claims of those supposedly speaking in God's name remained Jewish; we still feel that way today and remain a minority. Our great love of learning and reasoning is evident in the Talmud, and the disproportionate role of Jews in the professions. Then there is that mature view of the world...and sense of humor... that comes from an ancient people who have always been a minority in advocating justice, reason and social progress. I honor the history of my people because it and they produced much of what I value. The notion of God itself has little to do with my feeling Jewish. I know my ancestors saw their values as stemming from divine will, but I would hold these values even if the concept of God completely vanished from the earth. If religion truly stems from a core of beliefs which cannot be rationally proved, then the humanistic values which stem from the history of our people are my religious values as well. Theistically religious people often say that humanists have no solid set of values, that "anything goes." What I feel is that a commitment to a set of values depends on the strength of one's beliefs, whether those beliefs originate in humanism or theism. In an real sense, however, we are all humanists. Except for those who claim to speak directly for God (Jews showed their skepticism to this claim in the reaction to Jesus), all interpretation of events in our world, and even of scripture accepted as divine revelation, is done by humans, using human language, to try, as we all do, to figure out how to live life in ever changing circumstances. That even theistically religious people, using the same scripture as a basis, cannot agree on all moral and political issues supports this view. I feel Jewish, then, and share the values of our Jewish heritage, in spite of the fact that I do not share the divine source of these values that my ancestors held. Are all humanists Jewish then? Of course not. Judaism is more than a set of values. It is a culture and a history of that culture. God was a major part of that culture, but there is so much more to it than God. As a Humanistic Jew I not only celebrate my origins, but also seek to further carry forward and develop the values which are at the core of my religion. Walter Hellman